In Blue Liz, Spradlin explores the accumulation of meaning in ordinary human gestures, the paradox of pop art's mechanical and sensual sensibility, expressions of escapism and idealism, and women's role in a male-dominated society. She drew inspiration for Blue Liz from a statement about Andy Warhol's 1963 painting Blue Liz as Cleopatra by American poet Wayne Koestenbaum: "Warhol takes Liz and he dyes her blue and understanding that Liz is on the verge of becoming garbage he's going to rescue her…and essentially his sensibility is entirely mourning and melancholy, that Liz is lost, she's already lost, and she will never be found, she will never be there." In Blue Liz, Spradlin explores the texture of a specific historical moment that is ever-receding into the distant past to reveal its potential influence and meaning in the contemporary American moment.